Sir Thomas Gatehouse was the son of the minor gentlemen, Thomas Gatehouse and inherited his Danebury estate, in particular lease of Nether Wallop rectory. In 1761 his wife accrued the Headley Park estate of her father, the minor literary figure. William Huggins The younger Gatehouse saw himself among the county elite as he was sheriff…

Peter Gallup was born in Hampshire and spent his early years at East Meon before moving to Devon.  He attended Lancing College before studying agriculture and forestry at Oxford.  Gallup became a partner in a fruit importing business which ceased trading with the onset of World War II and he signed up, joining the Royal…

Usually known as the Venerable William Fearon DD, he was one the many ‘priest headmasters’ of Winchester College. He is included because he clearly had an interest in local history and is credited with ‘earnestly’ promoting its study in the county (see Hants & Berks Gazette on 31 March 1906, cited in the profile of…

Her father, William Escombe, was a shipping and insurance agent with the family firm Escombe, McGrath & Company Ltd in Manchester, which provided the family with a comfortable living. They moved to Bishopstoke in 1874, where Dorothy was born two years later.

Born at the family mansion Englefield House, situated near Reading, Sir Henry was the eldest son of the Sixth Baronet, Sir Henry Englefield and his second wife Catherine (nee Buck). In 1778, aged 26, he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society, and in the following year a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries.

Félicité Hardcastle was born in Oxford. Her great grandfather was Sir William Herschel and her father, Joseph Alfred Hardcastle, was also a noted astronomer.  When he died, in 1916, she and her mother moved to the New Forest village of Burley.

John Hooper Harvey trained as an architect under his father and under Sir Herbert Baker. He worked before WW2 for the Ministry of Public Works, then as a lecturer in the Bartlett School of Architecture at University College, London from 1950-1959. He was Consultant Architect to Winchester College from 1947 to 1986, and Keeper of…

See also: Piggott, Stuart Ernest

Born in Echunga, in the Adelaide Hills, South Australia, in 1852 – only three years after the town had been founded – by 1861 she was living as a young girl in Alresford with her parents, Jacob and Mary. Jacob was a wealthy businessman who had come to England in 1853 after 14 years in…

Florence was born in Sandhurst, Berkshire, to Rev. John Hepburne Merriott, an Oxford graduate and Assistant Master at Eton College, and his wife Caroline. He died in Winchester in 1919, living at Dormy Cottage, 49 St Cross Road, where Florence and her husband later came to live (father’s will: 5M64/40. Microfilm).